I agree, I think we do well with what we have. At worst it runs as self-sustaining, if not it may even be profitable, and still produces players like Trent and Jones.
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I’d add that Parisian establishment to that sentence. Both edifices are steeped in corruption and financial under-handedness and are a blight on football.
Appreciate your response. However I think your judgement on Lavia is mainly based on your personal opinion.
On the contrary, sweeting has provided feedback on Lavia having followed/known him since his youth days.
Illok and ZB have seen him play long enough to tell what he brings to the table.
I also agree with those who think that Lavia’s signing will not be a hindrance but an enabler to Bajcetic’s development.
In short i am firmly in the Lavia camp. I think he will be a very good,if not great, player in a few years. I hope he signs for us and doesn’t prove me wrong.
As @sweeting says we don’t really have the resources to catch them up in this regard. I agree we have done well with our own academy in recent years, and if we can keep that going with perhaps even the smallest of increases in quality coming through it will be big success.
However, I can’t help but, especially with Klopp here, think how we would get more first team players out of the youth system set up that City have than City have done themselves.
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It’s a fair comment to talk about Lavia’a inexperience. My inclination is to say that in two years he will be worth double the amount we pay now. All the tools are there. Good pace, strength, press resistant, receives the ball well looking to do something good with it, proactive on the turn, goes past players, passes quite well and tries harder passes off both feet.
Stick the lad in with a superior team, with superior coaching and a plan for his development, and we won’t look back.
As for Bajcetic, Im not certain what his best position is. He was a defender, then he played as a 6 for us, but he also got forward and looked like he had an eye for goal too, looking keen as an 8 getting into the box.
I think the team is evolving so that we won’t have too much rigidity in the 6 and 8 roles, and at that point, we will be blessed with good footballers who can do very well for us in just about any of the positions in the box midfield, assuming it shapes up as something like 3223.
Our number 10, MacAllister, will probably start alongside Trent in the deeper two, while Lavia (assuming he signs) gets up to speed. We have versatility in midfield and good footballers, and Lavia is one of those too.
I hope the deal is closed asap and he can join the group in Singapore to benefit from training and bonding ahead of the new season.
We’ve improved with our academy of late. The likes of Trent , Jones being first team players.
Likes of Neco , Phillips, Brewster probably going on to have good career in mid-bottom premier league teams that we will get decent money for… Nothing on the lines of what city and Chelsea get for their academy players fwiw.
Plus , we’ve got the likes of Bajcetic , Bradley coming through (while strictly not an academy player still counts as academy coached.
There’s still room for improvement especially with the club having so much history. We need to start with the academy staff and work downwards. Not to mention give competitive wages (even if not on par with City) so that better players are attracted. We dont do anything of note towards getting the players in London or south England for that matter. That’s where it needs to change.
Get competitive for the best talent in England / UK atleast.
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It’s far too early to see what Bajcetic’s position is going to be. But I can see him being a good tackler and also with good training and continuous improvement , a very good presser.
Hopefully he becomes more press resistant as well.
Wow. Again high praise for Romeo from @Sweeting. I’m not disputing your judgement but with this love-in shall we refer to you as Juliet? 
Exactly. So it’s not fully accurate to see him as a direct competitor with Lavia, which is how the narrative was shaping up. The argument was being made that we would have two excellent 19 year olds and one spot, and someone’s development and contribution would be hindered.
Instead, I see a group of talented and versatile midfielders, and there’s plenty of room for both Lavia and Bajcetic, along with the others we have.
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As I think sweeting mentioned , the mark of how good an academy is lies not just in the players that play for the Liverpool first team but also the players that go on to have meaningful careers (with the added advantage of getting revenue for the club) with other clubs.
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Adding Lavia or any other DM isn’t going to hinder the prospects of Bajcetic.
Both of them will get to play enough football.
Driven all the way to yarmouth and he still aint signed!
Isn’ there rules about how far afield you can go in recruiting youth players? Up to a certain age they have to be based within a certain radius or travel time of the club? If that rule is still in place then it rules out going after kids in London and further afield until a certain age but which point clubs generally want to hold onto them. Didn’t we just have to pay £800,000 for a 15 year old centre back?!
One of the issues we have is not only are there two clubs in the city but we’re also competing with both Manchester clubs for those top local youth prospects. The Manchester’s definitely seem to be getting into a war with each other at the moment. Think United just poached Darren Fletcher’s twins from the City academy and it’s not the first time there’s been movement of youth players between the two clubs.
One thing I’ve long wondered is why we don’t have a sister club or two that we work with. Chelsea have worked with Vitesse for a long time. City have Girona. Brighton have a club in Belgium they work with and send players out on loan to on the regular. We don’t seem to have that type of relationship with anyone, at least not that im aware of.
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Even if Trent transitions mid game to DM at times. Someone like Lavia / Bajcetic can easily cover that position RM position temporarily till Trent transitions back.
That hypothetical situation still allows both of them ample time on the pitch if both of them were needed as a double pivot.
Our tactics will be flexible for who plays where (especially the likes of Jones / Mac / Thiago who can start deeper if needed as well. Don’t see Elliot having the positional discipline to be a #6 though.
Everton has a good track record of producing academy recruits. Certainly till some seasons back , they were better at producing numbers than we were. Despite the fact that we produced Stevie , carragher and some other recruits. Everton did better from Moyes period to maybe now Rafa did make changes and got some guys incoming and we then took a nosedive in bodgers period.
Frankly its a mark of shame that a club official like Fletcher thought that city’s academy was better suited than United’s.
United’s talent line is crumbling too. Yes , they did produce Greenwood and before him rashford. But little else in between.
We got Sterling from London. There are plenty of guys that we can get if it means expanding our scouting area and still have the willingness to pay the transfer fees needed.
Think the rules have changed since then.
City’s academy is simply a better standard. There are some philosophical differences in the way City and Utd approach youth development that make the contrast between the 2 set ups very apparent for any kid considering his options. Some of that is down to Utd not keeping up with the way the game has developed, but the reality for United is they could have the second best academy in the country and still would be the second most attractive option in their own city.
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